A Serbian Wedding - Dancing the Night Away

The main purpose of our European trip was to attend my best friend's daughter, Sasa's wedding in Novi Sad, Serbia.


Lillian, my best friend and her family immigrated to Canada in the early 1990's when Sasa was just six years old. Twenty years later, the little girl grew up into a beautiful intelligent young woman, graduated from university, fell in love with Lazar and  got married last October in Toronto.  But they never forgot their roots and wanted to have a wedding in Serbia for their families and friends there, so we were honoured to have been invited to their Serbian wedding celebrations.

Sasha got married last year in a beautiful wedding in Toronto, Canada

 On the day of the wedding, despite the thousand things which they had to look after, Zoran and Lillian came to pick us up at the Leopold Hotel. They were very kind, considerate and generous; they booked us a room ( and paid for a night of hotel for us! )  and drove us to the hotel where the reception was to take place. The hotel, located in the national park, was about a thirty minutes drive from Novi Sad. It was a nice country drive and at times, the winding paths and scenery reminded us of our cottage towns in Ontario, Canada.

I learned that there were three parts to a  Serbian wedding and some traditions:

1.   A pre wedding reception –  Traditionally a Serbian wedding starts with the guests gathering at the groom's place first and then everybody going together and picking up the bride from her house. Since both Sasa and Lozar would have a lot of people attending the wedding, they invited the guests to have a light reception at the hotel prior to the ceremony.

A Lapel Corsage for Male Guest

 A Wrist Corsage for Female Guest

Guests started arriving at around 3:30p.m. Each guest was  welcome and given a small corsage; the men pinned theirs on their lapels while female guests were given a dainty pretty wrist corsage to wear.

The bride & her father at the pre wedding ceremony reception

Family members from both the bride and groom were present greeting guests as they arrived and guests were treated to food and drinks. 

During this time, family members, friends were introduced to one another and got acquainted.  It was during this pre wedding reception when Lillian introduced Stan and me to her family and friends. We got to talk to a number of the family members and her best friend's family. It was a great idea for many guests to break the ice and start talking to one another.

2.   The Wedding Ceremony – After the pre wedding reception, the wedding party and all the guests went to a church to attend an Orthodox church wedding ceremony. There was a chartered bus taking all the out of town guests to the church and saving them from getting lost. What a thoughtful gesture!

The wedding ceremony was traditional and new to us. The officiating priest performed much of the ceremony, reading/ chanting from the bible with another person echoing on the altar. Meanwhile the bride and groom, accompanied by the best man and maid of honour, stood before the priest while most family members and friends stood along both sides of the church hall witnessing this momentous event.

Although the service was conducted entirely in Serbian, Stan and I understood the meaning of most of  the ceremony by observing the actions and body language of the priest and people involved in it. There were two parts of the ceremony that I really liked.  

a. Tying of hands -  Sometime in the middle of the ceremony, the priest, fully dressed in his priestly robe, took a white long piece of cloth and tied each of Sasa and Lazar's hand with it. The symbolism of this tying of hands was readily understood. 

Sasa and Laki at Their Serbian Church Wedding Ceremony

b.  Crowning of the bride and groom - Sometime after the tying of hands the priest placed a crown on the groom first and then on the bride. Afterwards, with the crown on each of their heads, both Sasa and Lazar followed the priest and walked around the altar three times while being blessed by him. ( This part was  interesting to us as we just attended a Hindu Canadian wedding a month ago in Canada, and  witnessed the Hindu bride and groom also performed some wedding rituals three times to each other. So the number three must have some significant meaning in a wedding in both religions.)

The New Couple with the Bride's Proud Parents & Grandparents

Some of the Guests at Our Table

After the wedding ceremony, all the guests lined up and took turn to congratulate the new couple and have their picture taken with them. (That was something I rarely seen in a Canadian wedding save in the Chinese weddings.)  I think that was very nice as it demonstrated the respect and appreciation Sasa and Laar had for their guests.

C. The wedding reception – It took place at the hotel at around 7:30p.m. The first band consisted of about ten musicians playing beautiful and familiar English songs such as Love Me Tender, Save the Last Dance for me, Fame etc. It was great dancing music!  

One thing we found very different from North Amercian weddings was that N.A. wedding guests don't start dancing until after the dinner is finished.  By then it may be around 9:30pm or 10:00pm and some people may even start leaving. But at this Serbian wedding,  dancing started right away even before the food was served. As soon as the band started playing, guests were on the dance floor dancing away. What a great idea! We had about 5- 6 hours of dancing at the reception. It was a wonderful way to celebrate the wedding and the new couple had ample time to have fun with the guests! 

Tradition - Guests Bring Cakes to the Wedding - Lots of Yummy Desserts!

Stan and I love dancing and we hit the dance floor and danced the night away. We all ate, danced, ate and danced some more. We danced the normal dances plus Serbian folk dancing when the second band showed up  later playing Serbian music. 

Everybody just danced and had a great time, including Sasa's grandparents who were dancing and having a great time as well. The Serbian guests really know how to have a party and enjoy themselves. Nobody minded if you were not a good dancer., therefore the dance floor was never empty and it was full of people so that you did not feel that you were the only person dancing.  Stan and I learned a few steps of the folk dances and we had a marvelous time indeed.  What a party and what a wedding celebration!

Thank you, Lillian, Zoran, for inviting us and thank you, Sasa, and Laki for allowing us to share in your wedding celebrations for the second time.  You two make a great couple and all the best to you in your new life together!

R.T. Novi Sad, Serbia
Aug. 11, 2012